Fire-escape.



P. J. MEYER.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 17, 1914'.

L maw'm, Patented Jan 5,1915.

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P. J. MEYER.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APYLIOATION FILED AUG. 17, 19M.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

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THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOTU-LITHOH WASHINGTON. D. C"

PETER J. MEYER, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

Application filed August 17, 1914. Serial No. 857,059.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER J. MEYER, a subject of the Quenn of The Netherlands, residing at Paterson, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fire escapes and particularly to the class in which a running line, whose advance is controlled by a suitable resistance medium, is employed to support a person escaping.

The principal objects of the invention are to increase the efliciency and the element of safety attending the use of this class of fire escapes; to make the apparatus adapted with slight changes for descents from different elevations, such as the different stories of buildings; to render it possible for each person to regulate his descent, according to his weight; and to construct the parts which control the advance of the line and determine the elevation from which the apparatus is adapted for lowering a person to the ground so as to be compact and space-saving.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein i the apparatus is fully illustrated, Figure l is a horizontal sectional view of an apartment of a building, showing the improved apparatus partly in plan and partly in section; Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional View of the apartment, showing the apparatus partly in elevation and partly in section; Fig. 3 is somewhat similar to Fig. 2, but on a larger scale; Fig. 4 is a plan View of the main parts of the apparatus; and, Fig. 5 illustrates the device whereby the person may regulate his descent according to his weight.

a is an apartment of a building, having a window or other opening 6 in an outer wall thereof.

0 is a suitable housing which may be placed anywhere in the apartment and from which extends a pipe or conduit 03 whose end-portion 6 projects outwardly from the building, preferably over the said opening 7). A support for certain parts of the apparatus is placed within this housing and suitably held to the floor thereof, the same in the present instance including a baseplate 7 and, secured thereon, two brackets g. In the uprights g of these brackets is arranged the non-revoluble shaft h carrying the fixed ratchet wheels '5 and afiording a bearing, between said ratchet wheels, for the drum j which carries spring-pressed pawls is engaged with the teeth of said ratchets. Around this drum extends the line Z one end of which, being passed over the pulley m, carries the weight 71.. Assuming the line to be advanced in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 3, as in response to the weight of the person descending, the disposition of the pawls and ratchets is such that the drum may not turn, so that in the condition assumed the drum constitutes a brake to the advance of the line, which movesrelatively to the drum under friction that varies ac cording to the extent of the frictional contact and the heaviness of the. weight n. In this way, assuming means for supporting the weight of the person descending is con nected with the leading end of the line, his descent will be eased or gradual. When his descent has been accomplished and the line is released the weight, which has been mean time elevated, falls, returning the line to its original position (Fig. 3), the drum now rotating freely under the draft of the line as it moves reversely to the arrow in Fig. 3.

Referring, now, to the means, connected with the leading end of line Z, for supporting the person descending, the same in the preferred form shown herein including means whereby the apparatus is adapted for lowering persons from different elevations, 0 and 79 are two drums connected by the gearing g and r and revoluble in the uprights g of brackets g and g'. The end of the line Z is attached to the drum 0. Attached to the drum 3) is another line 8 which extends through the pipe d and around suitable pulleys t therein, its outer end being preferably secured to a fixed eye it so as to form a bight therein as shown in Fig. 3. In the bight of the line .9 is arranged a sling preferably including the sheave 12, directly hung in the bight, a shackle 'w depending from the axis of the pulley, and the sling proper 0a, to be described in detail.

The length of the line Z is, or needs to be, only what is required for the predetermined distance through which weight it rises and falls. The length of line 8, however, is sufficient to permit the rise and fall of the sling through the height of from one to any higher number of stories. If the apparatus is placed at the highest story to which line 8 is adapted the latter will of course be all paid out when the sling has fully descended,

but when it is placed at any of the lower stories there will be more or less of the line wound in reserve on the drum '0" when the sling is fully down, according to the elevation of the story. The variable quantity affecting line 8 is accommodated to the constant quantity affecting line Z by varying the diameters of one or more of the elements 0, p, g and 7', which in the present case are of such relative sizes, with weight it having a rise and fall of approximately one story, that the sling has a rise and fall of approximately five stories, drum 3 being twice the diameter of drum 0 and gear 9 five times that of gear 1*.

The sling proper includes a belt y having a ring 2 and a snap-hook 2 to engage in the ring for fastening the belt about the waist of the person, said ring being equipped with another ring 3 with which may be engaged the snap-hook 4 of the shackle w. A stirrup 5, in which the person may obtain a foot-hold, depends from the belt and has snap-hooks 6 to engage rings 7 on the belt for adjusting the stirrup.

As a novel means for regulating the descent of the person according to his weight I provide the device shown in Fig. 5, where 8 is an elongated grip or handle having extending from one end thereof the helical guide 9, the axis of which is oblique to the axis of the handle. In descending, the person grasps the handle of this device, whose guide 9 is engaged with the line 8 between the sheave and eye a, the line extending axially through the guide, and by moving the handle toward and from the line alters the extent of the bend formed therein and so varies the resistance developed.

It will be apparent that one of the principal features of the present invention is the provision of two lines Z and s and their connecting means for supporting the person descending in lieu of only a single line, such two lines winding on separate drums, for thereby, although the extent of travel of the weight or equivalent return means is constant, by simply changing the ratio of the gearing the extent of travel of the sling may be altered as desired.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I 'claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a fire escape, a running line, means, connected more or less directly with one end of the line, for supporting. a person, a freely rotative drum embraced by the line, means to oppose rotary movement of the drum under the pull of the line when being drawn in one direction by the weight of the person, and a weight attached to' the other end of the line and maintaining the same in frictional gripping relation to the drum.

2. In combination, the building, a support rigidly attached to an elevated part of the building, a freely rotative drum journaled and having a fixed axis in said support, a running line extending around the drum, means, connected more or less directly with one end of the line for supporting a person, a weight attached to the other end of the line and maintaining the same in frictional gripping relation to the drum, and means to oppose rotary movement of the drum under the pull of the line when being drawn in one direction by the weight of the person.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

PETER J. MEYER.

Witnesses J OHN W. STEWARD, WM. D. BELL.

copies or this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latents, Washington, D. '0. 

